Installing the cellar

The team at Crary Ice Rise have lowered the ‘cellar’ into a 3m pit dug down into the ice.

The cellar must be in place before hot water drilling gets underway, and is an important part of our AIDD (Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill) system. The framing provides a space for equipment to sit below the drill rig at the ice surface.

With the cellar installed we are a step closer to drilling our sediment core from the bedrock below the 500m ice sheet!

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Ross Shelf Reports
Hot water drilling gets underway!

Hot water drilling gets underway!

22 December 2025

The team have begun to melt a hole through the ice to make our well. 

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Media clippings
Scientists Search for Ancient Climate Clues Beneath Antarctic Ice

Scientists Search for Ancient Climate Clues Beneath Antarctic Ice

17 December 2025

An international team, including researchers from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is attempting to drill for mud and rocks holding critical insights about the fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

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